Twelve solid hours of sleep later, we got out of bed. It was great and much needed sleep for both of us. Not a train horn sounded all night.
On the agenda today was Carol's Crack and New Wave. We had plans to possibly do additional climbs, but it didn't turn out that way. The air was a bit more clear and it did not look like rain at all. Hurrah!
We didn't take many photos while climbing today for some reason. We got several before and after the climbs, but almost no 'action shots.'
The first pitch of Carol's crack is an easy 5.10a. Um. Okay. Not so easy. That crack sucked me in, bit down hard, chewed me up, and spit me out! Egads. I fell several times at the crux (is there a crux on that pitch?). The pitch felt so insecure and harder than anything we'd done the day before. I dreamed of being on Mr. Clean again. I did finally get to the belay though I was pretty concerned about my ability to get to the top of pitch two. Pitch 2 was another 160 feet of harder climbing. Gack.
I look pretty whooped at the top of the first pitch of Carol's Crack...
Dave took off leading this pitch. BTW, this pitch is described in the guidebook has having no rests. Very accurate. He made it to the top clean though I heard a lot of "self-coaching". He climbed well and the "positive" reinforcement he used on himself was pretty entertaining. (See the video of Dave at the top of the pitch - it's posted below).
I wasn't feeling very optimistic at all. I figured at least I could start by stemming and when it was too hard, I could lay back the rest of the pitch. I mean, how long is 160 feet anyway? I'm a strong lay-back-climber...
Yeah, well, not strong enough.
I started climbing and by the first move I was in a layback. Go! Go! Go! Go! I told myself. Gasp! Gack! Go... goo...goooo... ack...falling! I had charged up that pitch in a fury. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw how far I'd made it. I only had about 150 feet more to go. What? It must have been a sight of arms and legs flailing around and no progress. How Dave kept from laughing I won't ever know.
I wrestled this pitch for what seemed an eternity until I just couldn't move any more. It took a while, but I finally waved my white flag of defeat and had to be lowered to the belay. Absolute defeat. Crushed by Carol's Crack. Carol was a badass.
It was massively humid so we sat at the base of the climb and relaxed. And broiled in the sun. Finally, we moved around the corner to a shady spot to a two-pitch climb called New Wave. It was a really fun climb. Not a gimme, but not a soul-crusher like that wench Carol. The crux did punish me, but aside from that all went well and was enjoyable.
We spent some time at the top of the second pitch on the "Teacher's Lounge" enjoying the view. Happily, the smoke was dissipating and we could see into the distance quite a bit better than we could the day before.
We rapped down, hiked out and got back to camp. We took some glorious out-door showers then chowed down on some jethro-sized bowls of macaroni and cheese.
I may not be at the university any longer, but I'm still getting a lot of schooling! Another great day.
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